UK recycler adds optical sorter

BT-Wolfgang Binder GmbH in Gleisdorf, Austria, has sold a Redwave sensor-based optical sorting machine to Hanbury Plastic Recycling Ltd. in Stoke on Trent, England, which wanted to separate transparent and white high density polyethylene bottles from curbside recycling programs.

BT-WolfGang Binder said this is a first for a sorting plant. They recycler also wanted to separate natural and colored PET before final storage and baling.

Bales are fed into a bale breaker and then onto a ballistic separator. Fines from the separator are collected and the material is fed to a three-way Redwave optical sorter, which removes natural or colored HDPE on the first ejection and natural or colored PET on the second ejection. All remaining material passes through a third ejection point to a conveyor that feeds another Redwave unit to remove all plastics, leaving fiber and black plastics.